We explain what a dystopia is in fiction, with various examples from cinema and literature. Also, what is the relationship between utopia and dystopia.
What is a dystopia?
When we speak of dystopia (or also of anti-utopias or cacotopias) we refer to a fictitious vision of society in which, simply put, things go very wrong. It is a commonly used term in the cinema, the literature and the philosophy, made up of the Greek voices dys- (“bad” or “difficult”) and moles ("place"). It is used as an antonym for Utopia and was first used in 1868 by the British philosopher John Stuart Mill.
Dystopias offer bleak, unattractive scenarios in which the human being has ruined his existence or fails to stabilize society enough to lead a peaceful life. In general, they are terrible portraits of a future society, in which people are dehumanized and an undesirable situation is experienced, be it a dictatorship perfect, one war endless or a post-apocalyptic world.
In the last decades of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st, the dystopian story became a gender itself, extensively cultivated in the literary and audiovisual narrative arts.
In general, dystopias describe very well the way of thinking of the time and society in which they were written, since they embody the prevailing social and political fears. In some cases, these fears have to do with the politics, in others with the technology, the ecological disaster and other similar cases.
This means that a dystopia can present a society totally detached from the current one, or project the current society but with specific and terrible changes. For this reason, dystopia is often considered a genre of narrative of Science fiction.
Examples of dystopias
Examples in the literature:
- 1984 by George Orwell. In this novel by the British author, published in 1949, a future England is ruled by the “Engsoc” (from English Socialism), a regime of continuous surveillance and political and social repression, ruled by “Big Brother”. This novel is inspired by the term "orwellian”, which is used to call this type of system totalitarians and crushing.
- A happy world by Aldous Huxley. It is the most famous novel by this British author, published in 1932, which describes a future world in which technology has come to control every aspect of human life. In this new world, reproduction takes place in synthetic wombs, and human society is strongly stratified into immovable groups (alphas, betas, gammas) that are kept in control with the effect of hypnopedia and a drug called "soma". that induces a state of happiness and tranquility. The protagonist will arrive in this society, a "savage" born in the outside world.
- space merchants by Frederick Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth. Published in 1953, this science fiction novel poses a futuristic world that constitutes a kind of satire of capitalism current. In this possible world, companies have devoured the can politician and their CEOs exercise command in the manner of the feudal lords of yesteryear. The hope for change lies in an anti-consumerist terrorist group.
- the submerged world by J.G. Ballard.Written in 1962, this novel is today considered a forerunner of the “climate fiction” genre, that is, of dystopias that warn about the impact of industrialization in the atmosphere. It is set in a future world in which the polar ice caps of the planet have melted and the sea has devoured everything. In this context, a group of scientists seeks access to ancient human cities.
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. The most famous work of this Canadian novelist, brought to television at the beginning of the 21st century, is a key work to understand gender dystopias. In this fictional world, the pregnancy rates of the humanity collapse due to the effect of pollution, and a nation emerges in the midst of a new American civil war: the Republic of Gilead, of ultra-conservative Christian values. There, the few remaining fertile women are forced to copulate and become pregnant in order to reproduce the ruling elite in a kind of "public service" known as "the maids."
Examples in the movies:
- metropolis by Fritz Lang. This is a legendary film, both in world cinema and in the expressionism German, appeared in 1927. It tells the story of a great megalopolis (called Metropolis) of the 21st century, in which the workers live in underground ghettos and are forbidden from the outside world, until they are incited by a human-like robot to rise up and start the revolution.
- Soylent Green by Richard Fleischer. This 1973 film is a classic of American B movies, and is based on the novel Make room! Make room! written by Harry Harrison in 1966. In this case, human society lives in the 21st century in conditions of overcrowding, pollution and global warming, and hunger abounds.The solution lies in a type of edible product produced by the Soylent company, from the remains of people who, at a certain age, are compulsorily led to medical euthanasia.
- Brazilian by Terry Gilliam. This 1985 British science fiction film is largely inspired by the novel 1984, to create his own dystopian world controlled by a ruthless, inefficient and oppressive bureaucratic machine, keeping people in line thanks to the threats of a terrorist faction. A minor error in the system will lead the protagonist, Sam Lowry, to become a threat to the system.
- The Matrix of the Wachowski sisters. This 2001 film is considered by many to be a high point in the science fiction genre. cyberpunk, characterized by its somber panoramas in which the body and technology end up merging into a single thing. The story tells of the awakening of Mr. Anderson, a programmer by day and hacker by night, which occurs when he discovers that the world he knows is an illusion created by machines to keep humanity asleep, while extracting the necessary electricity from our bodies. to subsist in a world ruined by war between Humans and the robotic creations of him.
- Road by John Hillcoat. Inspired by the novel of the same name by the American Cormac McCarthy, this 2009 film narrates a post-apocalyptic world turned into a winter wasteland, in which a father and his son seek to survive the dangers of hunger, cold and the ambition of the other survivors, many of whom have become cannibalistic killers.
dystopia and utopia
The term dystopia is proposed as an antonym of utopia, that is, as the opposite of an ideal and perfect society, although in reality the opposite of utopia would be reality.While utopia offers an encouraging panorama or a benevolent future, that is, the best possible scenario, dystopia presents the worst possible scenario.
Broadly speaking, utopia is considered optimistic and dystopia is considered pessimistic. The etymology of both words is similar, since utopia comes from the Greek eu-, "good and moles, "place".